Ready-Made Meal Market To Soar

GIA announces the release of a comprehensive global report on Ready Meals markets. The world market for ready meals is projected to exceed $81 billion in terms of value by the year 2015. Rising employment of women, increase in disposable income, and increasing westernization of food habits across major countries are leading factors driving demand for convenient meal options, especially ready meals.

San Jose, California — April 5, 2010 — Ready meals refer to completely pre-cooked meals readily available through retail outlets, which only need to be heated for consuming. Ready meals are also known as takeaways, carryouts, takeouts, and fast food. Ready meals include vegetable, pasta, fish, poultry, meat and seafood dishes that are also classified as continental, traditional, vegetarian and ethnic dishes. The trend for ready meals, primarily owing to convenience, has been growing over the years, and currently most leading markets are nearing maturity.

While ‘convenience’ and ‘microwaveable’ have been popular claims in the market, ‘health’ and ‘natural/organic’ are new claims that are now being widely used to draw consumer appeal. In fact, ‘Health’ and ‘Organic’ have emerged as the most popular claims over the past couple of years. Ready meals manufacturers also continue to embark on novel approaches in their offerings to attract customers. Children’s meals segment, despite being smaller in size, is one of the fastest growing segments.

Europe dominates the world ready meals market as stated by the new market research report on ready meals market. Since 1990s, customers’ attitude towards food has transformed significantly in Europe. One of the key factors that have driven this shift includes improvement in living standards, and need for convenience. Not surprisingly, ready meals witnessed rapid surge in demand, as consumers became more time-constrained. In markets such as France, where consumers are more particular about quality and taste, demand for ready meals witnessed dramatic growth. The most popular ready meals option among Europeans is frozen ready meals.

Asia-Pacific represents the fastest growing market for ready meals. Though most countries in this region traditionally prefer home cooked meals, rising income levels, increasing ownership of refrigerators and microwave ovens, rapid penetration of western-format retail chains and growing popularity of convenience food is driving demand for ready meals. However, preference for local diets and religious restrictions on beef and pork consumption are factors hampering the growth of meat-based ready meals. Another major growth inhibitor is the lack of adequate cold storage infrastructure for frozen and chilled ready meals.

Key players profiled in the report include Advanced Fresh Concepts Corp.; Campbell Soup Company; Chef Solutions, Inc.; ConAgra Foods, Inc.; Grupo Herdez S.A.B. de CV; General Mills, Inc.; H.J. Heinz Company; Hormel Foods Corporation; Kraft Foods, Inc.; Nestl USA, Inc.; Raynal et Roquelaure; Reser’s Fine Foods, Inc.; Smithfield Foods, Inc.; The Findus Group, The Schwan Food Company; Tyson Foods, Inc.; Unilever PLC; Weight Watchers International, Inc.; and William Saurin SA, among others.

The report titled “Ready Meals: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of key market drivers, product overview, product introductions, and recent industry activity. The study analyzes market data and analytics in terms of value sales for regions including The United States, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of World, and in terms of volume sales for regions including Japan, Europe and Rest of World.

Source: Global Industry Analysts Inc.